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Lobbying for lobbyists on Capitol Hill

Michael Bennet plans to introduce a bill that would place further curbs on the influence industry. |
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Former Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), who now works on legislative and government affairs issues for lobby shop Venable LLP, derided Bennet’s proposal as “misplaced,” arguing that campaign cash, not the act of lobbying, is more likely to unduly influence lawmakers.

“Lobbyists help members. Any corrupting influence is not coming from individuals giving information,” said Stupak, who still falls under a one-year lobbying prohibition for former House members, and therefore, is not registered to lobby. “The focus should be on money, not speech, if you’re worried about corrupting influences. Public financing needs to be considered.”

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Rep. Bill Paxon (R-N.Y.), a longtime registered lobbyist, said the Bennet proposal would “be cutting off the No. 1 supply of skilled lobbying talent in Washington.”

He added: “There’s nothing inherently wrong with lobbying. In Congress, you’d be hurting no one but yourself.”

Indeed, lobbyists largely suffer from an image problem that makes it easy for some politicians “to use the lobbying community as a scapegoat,” former American League of Lobbyists President Dave Wenhold said.

If Congress wants to force lobbyists to report each and every contact they have with a lawmaker, then members of Congress should also be required to report every meeting they have with each other, Wenhold said. They’re the ones who are elected to serve the public, and therefore, should be held to a high standard when it comes to disclosing their activity, he said. But banning former congressional members from lobbying is problematic, and potentially afoul of the Constitution’s first amendment, he added.

Lobbyists who work against lobbying restrictions is of particular concern to Sarah Dufendach — the legal affairs vice president and registered federal lobbyist for public interest group Common Cause.

Not all lobbyists are the same, she argued, and those working on behalf of corporate clients often have significantly more resources to fight disclosure and transparency proposals than public interest lobbyists like her have to support them.

As for former members of Congress, “they are a whole different category of human being,” Dufendach said. “They all have privileged information. Should you be able to turn that into a big, fat paycheck? There at least needs to be a much longer cooling off period put in place.”

Later this year, Marlowe says the American League of Lobbyists “will definitely get involved and take a position” on legislation aiming to curtail rights lobbyists today have, although the league hasn’t yet formally solidified its strategy. While declining to offer specifics, prime targets, he said, would be any provision the league considered “totally unrealistic.”